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This document provides guidance on the practicalities of implementing a postal survey, from the point at which the sample of patients or service users has been compiled, through to data cleaning. It is designed to help those trusts who have opted to carry out their survey mailings in-house, rather than use a survey contractor. This document also provides details of the approach and rationale used by the national patient survey programme to clean survey data.

Abstract:

Section 2 outlines the preparatory work that can be done before mailing commences, including printing questionnaires, organising the materials required for each mailing and setting up a FREEPOST address. The process of sending out the questionnaires and reminders is explained in section 3, whilst section 4 provides advice on managing your survey helpline during the fieldwork period. Section 5 explains how to enter the data from returned completed questionnaires, and section 6 provides advice on how to clean your survey data in accordance with the processes used for the national patient survey programme.